Auschwitz Visit with Guide in August

Thanks Ray, I understand the tour can be valuable, but it is 3.5 hours and I am not sure I want to go at the tour guides pace. My main question was about IF the museum lets you go without a tour in August, even if there is no entry tickets offered on their website. I read that you can on one part but there are entry tickets offered on every other month other than August, so looking for experience on this idea. Thanks!

This is the first year they have used the online reservation and entry pass system, so no experience is available.

What I can say is that upto the end of July, online reservation for free entry is available, so probably they have changed the rules for August. Which by the way, is against Polish Law.

If you now go back onto the Auschwitz Birkenau booking site you will find that they have added the free entry passes for the month of August.

Do you think 3.5 hours is too long, or not long enough? I went with the memorial's tour guide, the pace was good but did not allow time to linger. Birkenau can be visited without a guide.

In my opinion The guided tours at the Auschwitz museum are far to short (usually 1 hr 45 mins) they miss out well over half of the available exhibits. Their tour at Birkenau is also very short, and do not cover very much of the history there. But a tour guide at Birkenau is really essential to fully understand the horrors that occured.

The 3.5 hr suggested length is a lot more than it actually takes, and also includes the few minutes travel between sites and also a 15 minute break,

just make sure you do include the Birkenau site as part of the visit. Some people skip because it requires a drive to another location, but it is really the most important part to see. IMO.